It has been a very cold night! Down to –6 !
There is no snow here – yet! But it is set to remain very cold for at least the next week. The photograph below shows one of my Tree Ferns with frosted fronds. (Frosted Fronds . . . . . could be a name for a breakfast cereal). The crown of the Tree Fern has been stuffed with fleece and I hope this will help it survive.
I've added some tracks to the music player gadget on the sidebar of this wonderful blog. I like a wide range of music but had real trouble in trying to think of tracks that I like enough to add. So much trouble that I don't think the chosen tracks really reflect my music taste . . . . . But . . . . Hey Ho!
Really, I'm playing with this gadget. But . . . . Perhaps also fulfilling a deep desire to run a radio station? As a teenager, I loved the pirate radio stations that operated from ships and old anti-aircraft forts in the Thames Estuary.
Anyway, these are the first tracks added to 'Radio Musa' . . . . . . I might add some more!
By the way . . . The best radio station EVER is Radio Paradise – follow the link:
With the weather forecast to be getting colder, there were still a lot of jobs to be done on the Musa Ranch before the onset of winter. Luckily the weather stayed dry this weekend and, I’m pleased to announce, most of the tasks have been completed.
The compost heap was dug out and that yielded lots of black, crumbly rotted compost that was spread as a thick mulch around the garden particularly on the areas of poor soil and around more tender plants. The wooden sides of the heap had themselves rotted and so had to be rebuilt using anything to hand including an old door. With the structure complete, the top layer of the old heap was put back in and it soon filled as leaves and remains of plants were added. I always feel relieved when the dreaded task of digging-out the heap has been achieved as it is hard work but most of all because it gives space for the loads of other material that will come from the garden over the next few weeks.
Another task achieved was the wrapping of the banana stems with fleece. I wrapped both the Musa sikkimensis and Musa sikkimensis ‘Red Tiger’ in several layers of fleece and I hope that this year it does the trick. Fleece was also stuffed into the crowns of the Tree Ferns, this form of frost protection has worked well over the past 2 cold winters.
Above: One of the Musa (banana) plants just before being wrapped in fleece. The dead leaves were removed and added to the compost heap.
I also dug-up and potted some of my more treasured Colocasias and put these into the small, temporary, plastic greenhouse which is now completely full. I no longer worry about the basic Colocasia esculenta as they seem to survive quite well in the open, indeed, they are even mildly invasive.
Other tasks included raking the leaves from the lawn and clearing the pond of fallen leaves.
As I said, the small, temporary plastic greenhouse is now full. I have had to leave some of the Ensetes in the ground as there is no room for them.
Above: The dying leaves of an Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’ which will have to take its chances outside as there is no room in the inn or the small, temporary plastic greenhouse. (The leaves of the Hosta look good)
The garden looks better for a good clear up and we are nearly ready for winter.
Above: The Fatsia japonica continues to flower well. The photograph taken before I cleared the fallen leaves.
Добродошли на посетиоце из Србија
Dobrodošli na posjetitelje iz Hrvatska
Добредојдовте на посетители од Македонија
Nedavno sam posjetio web-Svet Biljaka koja je vrlo zanimljiva i ljudi koji koriste web-mjesta su vrlo prijateljski. Mislim da su neke od njih možda su posjetili ovaj blog, a ja samo želim reći hvala i dobrodošli!
Ja sam ne siguran što jezik za pisanje ove u, ali su odlučili iskoristiti moje najbolje Hrvatskom!
The website Svet Biljaka or in English ‘World of Plants’ covers the region of Serbia, Croatia and Macedonia. I found it because I noticed that there had been quite a bit of traffic from that site to my Flickr photos. Since then I’ve got into conversation on their plant forums and the people are very interesting and welcoming. The above is my attempt to write in their language!
There is a link below to their site but if you click on the ‘English’ tab on the site’s menu, you will be taken to an English version of the site that is completely different and, I think, not as good.
http://www.svetbiljaka.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=15141/postdays=0/postorder=asc/start=15.html
The small, temporary, plastic greenhouse is starting to fill-up. So far, it is mainly occupied by Ensetes (bananas), Aeoniums and Colocasias. There are a couple more Colocasias to be dug-up and these will join the refugees but I had hoped to dig-up and add some more of the large Ensetes but I fear there is no more room for them. They will have to take their chances outside but will almost certainly not survive. Things will not be that great for the plants that have managed to win a place in the small, temporary, plastic greenhouse. It is a damp and overcrowded refuge at best but it will also be cold, the electric heater is set just to avoid frost. Today I will wrap the large Musa bananas in fleece, fill the crowns of the Tree Ferns with dry fronds and/ or fleece and cover the succulents with plastic propagator lids.
I wish all my plants good luck over the forthcoming winter and hope to see them safe and well next Spring!
Left: The refugees of winter
I worked from home this afternoon and the sun was shining! The garden looks a mess and this weekend I must do some tidying work. But the Black Bamboo, Phyllostachys nigra, looked good in the sunshine – so I had to take a photograph:
The clump is now about 12 feet high and I continue to take out some of the oldest, thinnest canes each year to try and keep it open. I also remove the lower branches so as the canes can be seen. Last winter caused a lot of the foliage to shrivel in the frost, I hope this winter will not be as bad.
But I did take a photo from the dining room looking out into the night garden. There are various reflections including palms, cannas etc in the garden, table and chair in the garden all mixed with reflections from the dining room – including a blurred me.
My fig tree has now lost nearly all of its leaves and the bare branches just carry the fruit that failed to ripen during the summer. The branches and figs look a little sad silhouetted against the November sky.
Above (Fig 1) Fig Tree in November
I grow the variety Ficus carica ‘Brown Turkey’ planted up against the wall of the garage. It is said that to get a productive fig tree that you should restrict the roots by lining the planting hole with some sort of impervious product. Mine is planted into virtual rubble and I hope / think that this achieves the same objective. In this country, planted outdoors, figs will only produce one crop a year unlike if grown under glass or in warmer countries where 2 crops are achievable. This is why, as you will see in the above photo, my tree has a lot of figs that will now not ripen. These should ideally be removed leaving only the very small pea-sized embryonic figs that will produce next year’s crop if they survive the winter.
Our crop varies from year to year, the number of figs harvested depends on whether the birds or maybe squirrels get there first. I could protect the crop from birds with netting but then . . . . I don’t much like figs"!
Above (Fig 2): A nearly ripe fig produced on the Musa Estate
A Bit More Information . . .
The Fig is not exactly a fruit, the so-called fruit is, in fact, a cluster of flowers held within its skin. The flowers are pollinated by small wasps, each species of fig has a specific species of wasp able to enter the ‘fruit’ through the small opening at the end of the fruiting body. I believe some species of fig are also pollinated by ants. By the way, cultivated figs such as Brown Turkey are able to produce ripe ‘fruits’ without pollination, which is useful as the required species of pollinating wasps are not present in the UK.
So, Ficus carica is not able to set seed in the UK. However, there are wild fig trees growing along some of our river banks in England! It seems that these wild fig trees are the result of germination from seeds contained within sewage pumped into the rivers. The seeds must originate from imported dried and fresh figs and have passed through human digestive tracts. It is also likely that germination had been aided by higher water temperatures caused by the outflow of industrial cooling waters as these wild fig trees tend to be found along the banks of rivers passing through former industrial areas. Most of these wild trees are now very old and I hope this signifies that we are no longer pumping sewage into our rivers or industrial cooling water.
I believe that California has a problem with the invasiveness of Ficus carica introduced to that country but but that is not caused by the above reasons as I understand they are trying to eradicate the relevant pollinating wasp to control the spread.
I find the subject of the cultivated fig interesting as it has many historical connections to the ancient civilizations of Greece, Rome and Egypt, an interesting botany and, of course, several biblical references. I don’t think there is a book currently in print on the subject but I will have a browse on eBay.
As an aside . . . . I used to notice tomato plants growing on the high spring tide mark of a bay nearby. These plants also germinated as a result of sewage being pumped into the sea. I’m pleased to say that this no longer occurs . . . . . or perhaps I just haven't looked lately!
Above (Fig 3): The fig tree in summer
I like my fig tree for its structure and leaves with prominent veining. I’m not keen on eating figs but I like having the tree around!
Youngest daughter had some friends round for November The 5th. They had no fireworks but seemed happy to sit round a small bonfire made in our trust BBQ burner, listen to music and watch the fireworks of other houses. I would like to have joined them but I guess I’m too old to mix with a group of 15 and 16 year olds!
Our trusty barbeque was bought many years ago from Homebase for £35. It is solid cast-iron and I like it a lot. It is used for cooking (mmmm sardines!) but also just to burn a few logs and bits of wood from the garden. It lives in a corner of the garden next to the pond and has a bench and some old chairs around it. It’s a good place to sit and contemplate, even better when the fire is alight on a chilly evening. And even better with a glass of wine!
Above and below: The trusty BBQ – Nov 6th
I’ve been working from home today so took the chance for a stroll round the Musa acres. I noticed that the Fatsia japonica shrub has started to flower and how intricate the blooms are.
Above: Fatsia japonica flowers
Fatsia japonica is also sometimes known as the False Castor Oil Plant (the real Castor Oil Plant is Ricinus communis). It is a well known houseplant as well as a garden shrub. It has very large, lobed, glossy, leathery leaves and is evergreen. It hails from Japan and flowers, in my garden, in November with creamy-white balls or umbels of flowers, these are followed by black fruits.
The most useful thing about Fatsia japonica is that it grows well in full shade and is perfectly hardy. I’ve grown mine for the past 10 years on the north side of a high fence and in the shade of a large fir tree. It is now about 6ft high and I doubt if anything much else would grow in such deep shade and the poor, dry soil caused by the tree roots. True, it does suffer a bit from the poor soil and lack of moisture, I do try and give it a mulch of compost and the occasional watering in the summer.
Above, Fatsia japonica in my garden, November 2010
I think I will try and give it a bit more care and attention next year as it is a fine plant that looks quite tropical. The appearance of my plant is rather marred by the splashes of bird poo on the leaves, the overhanging fir tree has a large population of birds including doves.
Below: a couple more images of Fatsia japonica taken today:
The clocks have gone back, it is now dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home. I think that’s why I use garden spotlights, because otherwise I would never see the garden Monday to Friday. I have been quite depressed about the onset of Autumn and Winter – the loss of the light evenings and warmth. But . . . . . now the clocks have changed and it is definitely Autumn / Winter, somehow I feel happier. I can accept the cold and dark, appreciate the misty, frosty days . . . . enjoy the colours of Autumn and the, soon to be, skeletons of trees. I’m also looking forward to the garden being largely clear of its summer lushness and being able to get more distant views. I think . . . . . I might . . . . like Autumn / Winter!
Here’s a quote:
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
Albert Camus
The lawn is now getting covered in leaves and the garden is looking very autumnal:
The once tough-looking Hosta ‘Frances Williams’ is looking like a very old person – a bit wrinkled and wizened but very colourful and full of character:
Hosta la Vista!
So . . . for some reason I feel very positive and I’m going to scuff my way through the fallen leaves to the pub tonight! . . . . It is KMS!
